letztensvsletztereTell them apart

Quick tell: letztens is a adverb, letztere is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“letztens” is an adverb and “letztere” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#8,243
“letztens” frequency rank
#6,216
“letztere” frequency rank
14459
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature letztens letztere
Definition neulich, vor Kurzem von zweien oder mehreren zuletzt genannt

Where the eye mixes letztens and letztere

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. letztens (CVCCCVCC) and letztere (CVCCCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
letztens
8 ch
letztere

Look-alike desk: letztens vs letztere

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: letztens is [ˈlɛt͡stn̩s] while letztere is [ˈlɛt͡stəʁə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14459, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

letztens is recorded at frequency rank #8,243, classified as anadv, pronounced [ˈlɛt͡stn̩s]. letztere is at rank #6,216, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈlɛt͡stəʁə].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 14459, this pair ranks #1,951,086 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of letztens vs letztere

Shared letters: eltz. Private to "letztens": ns. Private to "letztere": r.

"letztens" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVCC  ·  "letztere" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • letztens ← eltztens · lettzens · lettztens · letzetns · letztenns · letztenss · letztesn · letztnes
  • letztere ← eltztere · lettzere · lettztere · letzetre · letzteer · letzterre · letztree · letzttere

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "letztens" for "letztere" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "letztens" is an adverb and "letztere" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "letztens" or "letztere" show up more?
"letztere" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,216 in our German list, against #8,243 for "letztens". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "letztens" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "letztere" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,951,086 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "letztens" and "letztere" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "letten vs letztens". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #1,951,086 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list